Iraq - Military train derails

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1446028,00.html

Tikrit - A train transporting material for the American military derailed Saturday near Samarra, north of Baghdad, a spokesperson for the US 4th Infantry Division said.

"A train derailed north of Samarra this morning. The line appeared to be broken by some kind of explosion. The train was carrying army related material," the spokesperson said.

more

[smallprint]

1. What's next --- a blimp explosion?

Things are just going "off the rails" today.

:shrug:

[slor]

14. LOL...

"blimp explosion" made me laugh for 5 minutes! I know it is a sad event thread and it may be in poor taste (my reponse to your words) but dammit it made me laugh. We all need to sometimes.

[Jackpine Radical]

27. Blimp explosion? No way.

Rush ain't planning to go anywhere near Iraq.

[Ripley]

2. Let's see train derailed, 2 blackhawks down...

Could this be what they mean by progress?

Or maybe our supply lines and transports are being hit by someone with pretty good military knowledge.

[IndianaGreen]

8. It's not Saddam, that's for sure!

Saddam was a thug and a total failure as military strategist. There is some real smart strategy behind all of this. It is clear by now that the bombing of the UN, the Red Cross, and the Carabinieri barracks, were not acts of terrorism, but part of a military campaign to further isolate the US from getting any assistance in Iraq from NGOs and allied countries.

The war in Afghanistan bankrupted the USSR, the war in Iraq is bankupting the US in the same manner.

[Eloriel]

9. What makes you say Saddam was a failure as a

military strategist?

I've heard a few know-nothings on the Repug side try to plant that meme, but I've never seen anything approaching credible analysis that said that. Maybe I missed it.

What is the basis for your claim?

Eloriel

[IndianaGreen]

11. The Gulf War for one!

Concentrating his troops expecting a naval landing, which never came, and making them easy targets for our Air Force.

[molok555]

12. Maybe Saddam has decided to read...

I can't remember where I read this online, but the strategy is apparently classic Sun Tzu:

1) Attack the enemy's strategy (Shock & Awe coming? Run away, melt into the local population. Give 'em no one to Shock & Awe. Except the locals, of course, who, as part of the enemy's strategy, are to be spared).

2) Attack the enemy's alliances (Pretty self-explanatory. UN, ICRC, Italy, Poles, and any other nation by extension).

3) Attack the enemy forces (Begun in earnest about a month ago (pin pricks, previously). M1A1, Black Hawk, Chinook, Black Hawk, Black Hawk x2).

What's next, Mr. Sun?

[secretshopper]

22. And the pin pricks were good for intelligence

By "sampling" what would work and how the response would go, you build some information about the real attacks, that seem to have begun for Ramadhan.

This shows many signs of excellent strategy, whether or not it's Saddam, his army, readers of The Art of War, Osama bin Laden, or the Hizb Allah.

These attackers are increasing in sophistication, and in success. The M1A1 Abrams tank that was disabled 28 August was a surprisingly sophisticated attack for a place that doesn't even have clean water or reliable lighting. The Chinook attack was also sophisticated.

I mentioned in another thread that chance plays a vital role in bringing down two Blackhawks, but the attackers are learning and adapting as they go. That's why they were ready and seized the opportunity that circumstance presented to them.

That has to be causing the planners to worry, and may be added incentive to sell off the country's assets to US companies, ratify the sneaky, illicit deals with a new, compliant government and constitution, and hightail it out of Dodge with as much cash as you can stuff in your pockets. I am referring of course to the Cheneys of the world, not the soldiers who get to do the dirty work.

The deadline of next year's election may help force Bush, Inc.'s hand, so I hope the democratic candidates keep the administartion's feet to the fire and drive home the message that soldiers are dying for lies and the personal enrichment of people already wealthier than anyone in the military will likely ever be.

Republicans who value personal integrity are a potential set of swing voters that are slowly awakening to the fact that their party is so far right that it's become fascist. They don't belong in there anymore than we do, so they may either stay home or vote for someone else.

And THAT'S a good outcome.

Secret Shopper

[Eloriel]

15. That was over a decade ago, and presumes no one ever learns

Care to update us on his lousy military strategy for THIS war?

Eloriel

[snippy]

25. Saddam's strategy, or lack thereof, had little to do with the Gulf War

except that it may have been possible to prolong it for a few days with better strategy. Unless another country can control the air, every target is an easy target for us, and was relatively easy for us even back then. Iraq had no modern air power and only primitive air defenses.

I agree with your previous post that there is a strategy behind the recent series of attacks and that strategy is a part of a military campaign to further isolate the US.

[Mal]

26. Everyone makes mistakes

And his mistake then was to try to fight conventionally. I refuse to believe someone who ruled a country like Iraq for so long, by force, against the will of the world superpower, is an idiot. The world is full of idiotic thugs, and all they end up being is muscle for someone else. To rise to power by yourself (ie, without the help of Daddy's name, money, and an aristocratic system) requires intelligence, guts, and a deficiency in humanity.
Learning from mistakes is a sign of intelligence, and if Saddam does have any hand in the resistance (a good chance, although there will be others involved, too, and 'freebooters'), then it looks like he learned.

[molok555]

28. What's the worst military blunder?

Fighting the LAST war. Saddam, or whoever is running this, appears to have learned that lesson. The neocons appear to have not. Shock & Awe is like a bad sequel to Desert Storm (y'know-moremoremore of the samesamesame. Plus, as pre Scream 2, the body count's gotta be higher).

As for Iraq's prep, check Scott Ritter:http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1110/p09s02-coop.html?entryBottomStory

SNIP:"In the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib is a compound on an abandoned airstrip that once belonged to a state organization known as M-21, or the Special Operations Directorate of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. As a UN weapons inspector, I inspected this facility in June of 1996. We were looking for weapons of mass destruction (WMD). While I found no evidence of WMD, I did find an organization that specialized in the construction and employment of "improvised explosive devices" - the same IEDs that are now killing Americans daily in Iraq."

[molok555]

3. Like the Beastie Boys say:

"It's Sabotage!!"

[Aidoneus]

4. finally going after supply lines, it seems

I would think that would be Step 1 as far as base level harassment operations go, but I guess these people march to the beat of their own drummer and will get to it when they feel like it. I think there's been a couple other similar moves like this on the supply lines, but it seems that it's not as common as the direct attacks on convoys/helicopters/tanks/etc of the occupation forces.

[DUreader]

13. They have been attacking US convoys all along

Isn't this the second train attack that we've heard about?

What with the news restrictions,you can bet there is much more that

we have not heard

[IndianaGreen]

5. It's like a scene out of Lawrence of Arabia

except that it is our trains being derailed when they blowup the rail lines. This is the second military train to meet this fate. The first time, the train was looted by nearby villagers who helped themselves to computers, among other things.

Back to Kobe, Lacy, and Paris Hilton!

[saigon68]

19. I was thinking that too

They were the Turk's and the train was wrecked. Try and guard a railroad. Its really hard.

[soothsayer]

6. What a fitting headline for the BFEE's bungled attack on Iraq

Kind of says it all

[Cocoa]

20. exactly

I wonder when we'll be reading about Operation Shark Jump.

[Barrett808]

7. Once again, insurgency's intelligence proves itself n/t

n/t

[ablbodyed]

16. what does n/t mean?

A fairly newbie

[sendero]

17. n/t means...

... no/text - all I have to say is in the subject line :)

[IMayBeWrongBut]

18. n/t means "no text"

nt

[jenk]

10. this is awful

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

21. is this any way to run a railroad?

this is the second supply train to be attacked and derailed.

[Cocoa]

23. Derailment in Samarra

http://topeka.isri.cmu.edu/~jusung/maugham.html

DEATH SPEAKS:

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

[loudnclear]

24. Hmmmm... notice this is outside the "triangle."

Glad we have them on the run.

[NNN0LHI]

29. It means things are "improving" outside the "Sunni Triangle" now n/t